You Be Brave...- A Motivational Short Story

When Eva was very young, and before she could start her school, she was very mischievous, restless, amiable, and possessed a very inconsistent mind with an extraordinarily strong imagination. She always figured a unique and unheard logic to how things worked.

When anybody would ask her what she wants to become when she grows up, she would always give different answers. Sometimes she would say Doctor or Teacher, but sometimes she would say Elephant or Horse or even a Whale. I also heard her sometimes say that she wants to become an Airplane when she grows up. I think she figured that growing up has something to do with growing in size, and as we change our size we can become anything. For, once she asked me “Ma’ma was I a Cat when I was small?”

We were very entertained and proud to see how imaginative our little daughter was. But with this imagination, she had this inability to stay focused committed to any work. She would never finish any game or activity. I got bored would be the common reason. But this is just the way of kids, right? I mean they learn things while growing up. She then started going to school and we realized that her grades are very average. We never gave it much significance; she was too young to think about her grades. However, when Eva was in the 3^rd or 4^th class, she once came to us in the night when I and John were resting.

“What’s up Kid?” asked John.

“Dad, I want to tell you something,” she said.

“Yeah, go on…”

“Well, I think I should not continue my school,” said she.

“Why do you think that?”

“I cannot focus… We have a lot of exams and I do very poor in them. We get many homeworks to do but I hardly finish them. And my all friends do all the exams and homeworks very easily. I am not very intelligent or genius like them. I also talked with my Miss but she says I need to be focused and committed, and with some hard work I will be fine. But daddy I cannot focus for long… I think I cannot and shouldn’t do this…”

“Whoa whoa whoa…slow down my little princess. It is alright if you are not able to focus. It is fine if you are scoring average marks. You don’t have to compete. And it is alright to have troubles, even we grown-ups have a lot of troubles.”

“How do the grownups solve their troubles, will you teach me?”

“Yes of course sweetheart. I guess you are almost there. Because a major step to solve any trouble is to talk about it. As you have brought this up to us, I think you have won half the battle.”

“But you and ma’ma do not tell me any troubles…”

“Well, I do tell them to your mother. From now on I will tell you too. Now, about the troubles you are having, I don’t think you have to be very smart or intelligent. You just have to push yourself a little harder every day. For this you don’t have to be very determined or committed, you just need to be…a …a little brave. Whenever you feel like shutting the book, you be brave and sit for a bit longer. Just a bit. I think it would start solving the problems. Will you do that for me? Will you be a little brave for me?”

That thing, that word “brave” I don’t know what it had in it, but it definitely started making Eva more confident. Not just her, but it struck me quite hard too. From that day, I started to observe that most of the things just need a little braveness to make them right. When you are too lazy to wake up in the morning, when you need to finish that last part of the work, when you are procrastinating for too long to call that person, I think a little braveness and all this would be very easy. I also realized that I missed most of the things in life because of this last push. And I am not talking about the big “brave” word that is being used for the people who sacrifice big things for society or give their life for the nation; I am talking about that small “brave” word that helps me to smile at a kid passing by. In my life, there were a lot of things that I wanted to do, that I could do—knowing interesting people who wanted to know me, developing hobbies that acquired my mind for a long time or going on a vacation I planned long ago. But I didn’t. Not because I was scared or couldn’t do them, but I would say I was just ignorant. As my chances of doing them disappeared, I was again ignorant enough to realize that I could have gained amazing experience. But since that little speech, I have been observant of little things, being just a little courageous, I have been very productive and happy.

Not only at the small things, but even when my John died, the same thing kept me going. I wasn’t strong. I was hopeless. I never saw myself without my husband. Thinking about Eva and her future was unimaginable for me. But I decided to be a little brave. And after about a decade of John’s death, both Eva and me are doing fine. You know why I am telling you this David, because I want you to know that I am brave. I married John because I thought I was in love. Only later realized, it really was love. Through the years that I lived with him and even after he left me, I still feel the love we had.

I know that you have proposed me for marriage because you think you are in love with me, or maybe you are, but I am not in love with you, and I must say no to your proposal. We have been together for quite a time now, and I must tell you that we really had a good time, but it is not a feeling that I must tribute with marriage. I also understand that it must have been difficult for you to be with and propose a widowed woman, and I must say that you are the bravest person I know. But I think you should marry only when there’s true love from both the sides.

David looked very sad and was almost in the tears. Emily continued…

You know one day when Eva was just 6 or 7 years old, she had cut her fingers off a kitchen knife. A couple of days later, I saw her cutting an apple with the backside of the knife. I asked her about it and she said, “I don’t want to hurt the apple.” I never knew how to tell her about it, but I hope you understand that sometimes you have to keep the sharp edges pointed so that everything remains right.

From the Editor:

Thank you for reading this and I guess you all know what I am going to tell here. Share this if you have liked the story and if haven't liked it, still share because that's what friends do, and then you can criticize me. But on a serious note, I believe that we all know what's right and what's wrong, we just need that last push to make things right. Despite of waiting for somebody else, let's be a little brave and push ourselves. So be brave and share this.